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Tuesday, 22 May 2018

Sunday was a quiet contemplative day for us reflecting on our 40 years of marriage. It was cool and overcast (just how we like it), with a gentle whisper of wind. So first we enjoyed lunch at a nearby cafe (with enough leftovers for our dinner!), and then made the short drive to Southport Beach where our nearby river finally reaches the sea.........

We decided to take the safe steps but chuckled at this lad taking the old and dangerous ones with what looked like a near miss...........

One brave soul was out catching his supper and in the time we were there the tide was coming in quite quickly so his knee high depth became thigh high fast.........

At first glance we thought this was a perished bird but on closer examination it was just a plant.......

And a very much living species of sea bird that we have not seen before........

We are so lucky to live just five minutes from this wonderful place and we never take it for granted. While I've been chatting to you an email came through from Val in New South Wales. She has just finished this spectacular quilt for her son and daughter-in-law and combined blocks from my Dublin quilt and the Fantasy at Midnight patterns and what a splendid job she has done. I love it and I hope the recipients love it too. Thankyou so much Val for sending me the photo and allowing me to share it on the blog.......

We leave for Robe in just two sleeps so next post will be from there....till then take care x

Saturday, 19 May 2018

How important it is through life's journey to find a place to make one happy. For some it might be their faith, for others their family, a favourite holiday destination or even just home........no right or wrong but simply finding that happy place. For Larry it is the football (especially if they win!), or working out a puzzle.......

For both of us we are happiest at this time of year. We love Autumn - our favourite season as we know the long hot Summer is once again behind us. The seasons have changed all over the world and we seem to have missed out on the usual Autumn this year in Australia. But the trees have finally managed to change colour quite suddenly but they are quite different this year.......

While taking photos out the front it reminded me how quickly it has changed in just four years from when we purchased our current home.......

Two years later......

and today........

I've planted a few cosmos plants and the stems have become enormous so have needed quite a bit of support. But because of the short Autumn we might miss out on blooms.......

The silver birch has been the biggest surprise of all. I had three at our previous home of 26 years and these trees were over 20 years old and a third of the size of our young birch. You can just see one standing in the weeks before we put the house on the market - the other two trees never survived.......

This is the new birch at home planted less than four years ago to this height today.......

So while Larry is in his happy place at the footy I will be in my happy place creating. This is the progress on my new May Morris hanging. I was asked if I could loan a quilt for the 125th anniversary celebrations for Bernina and it needed to have a splash of gold so I decided to create something new........

I am planning on embellishing it with lots of gold bead embroidery after I have quilted it......

You can see how I pin sections so that only the area I am stitching is exposed....

And yes I did finally get those doors to my happy sewing space......

Some time back when someone visited our home for the first time they commented that it was nice to see how one can incorporate a bit of William Morris into the home without overdoing it. We live in a smallish house and I don't think it really works unless you have huge rooms and high ceilings. It was in March last year that I mentioned on the blog HERE that I had purchased a William Morris quilt cover bed set in the Strawberry Thief pattern......

Well I very sadly returned it as it looked so cluttered in my very small bedroom. But every room of our happy place has still got small snippets of Morris but not too much.......

In the kitchen, the bathroom and even sitting outside I catch glimpses of Morris too.....

By day and by night it is still our happy place.......

It looks like this normally.....

but right now it looks like this ready for packing patterns in front of the telly tonight.......

Tomorrow we are celebrating 40 happy years of marriage and in just five sleeps we will be staying in our very happy place of Robe. Larry bought me these beautiful blooms this morning....he said he couldn't walk past them because they were the ruby colour of the 40 year anniversary (And some special cards from two very special friends too that came in the post yesterday).......

So I do hope you have a happy place too. It seems appropriate to conclude with my favourite 'happiness is' calendar quote for the week and how very true these words are too.......